Woods, McIlroy Yearn For Old-School US Open Challenge

Tiger Woods would love to
see a classic US Open test next week at Pebble Beach, where the US Golf
Association will be under heavy scrutiny after wind-whipped Shinnecock
Hills teetered toward unfairness last year.

Woods, whose 15 major
titles include three US Open triumphs starting with a record-setting
2000 victory at Pebble Beach, said the USGA has gotten away from what it
does best with the introduction of graduated rough and flexible teeing
grounds.

“I thought it was just narrow fairways, hit it in the
fairway or hack it out, move on,” he said of the old-school approach.
“Now there’s chipping areas around the greens. There’s less rough. They
try to make the Open different, and strategcially different.

“I just like it when there’s high rough and narrow fairways and it’s ‘Go get it, boys.'”

Woods
traced the introduction of graduated rough to Winged Foot in 2006 and
the trend of flexible teeing grounds to Torrey Pines in 2008 — where he
won his most recent US Open crown.

“I didn’t agree with the set up at 14 in ’08,” he said of the hole shortened to 277 yards in the final round.

“It
was a great par-four, but why move it all the way up there and make it
driveable?” said Woods, who noted that tee ground options were a notable
factor at Chambers Bay in 2015 — when the first hole played as a
par-four and the 18th a par-five for three rounds but swapped those pars
for one round.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, who won the 2011
US Open on a rain-softened Congressional course, agreed he’d like to see
a more traditional US Open set up.

“In my head, growing up
watching the US Open, that was what my perception of the US Open was,”
McIlroy said. “It was tight fairways. It was thick rough. It was a
premium on accuracy and precision. I think some of the golf courses
we’ve played and some of the set ups over the past couple of years went a
little bit away from that.”

USGA officials were also pilloried
last year at Shinnecock Hills, when chief executive Mike Davis admitted
their zeal to make the US Open the “ultimate” test in golf backfired as
higher than expected winds dried out the sloping greens in Saturday’s
third round.

– ‘hard to screw up Pebble’ –

GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP / Warren Little
Phil Mickelson reacts to his putt on the 14th green in the second round of the 2018 US Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club

Davis admitted that by the end of the day, some well executed shots not only weren’t rewarded but were penalized.

The
round recalled the 2004 US Open at Shinnecock, where the greens dried
out over the weekend to the extent that some were virtually unplayable.

Pebble Beach, with its breathtaking Pacific Ocean
vistas, has evolved into an iconic US Open course since Jack Nicklaus
won the first Open held there in 1972.

Tom Watson won there 10
years later and Tom Kite in 1992 before Woods marched to a stunning
15-stroke victory in 2000 and Graeme McDowell triumphed in 2010.

But not everyone is certain that a return to Pebble will see the USGA, as McIlroy put it, “redeem themselves”.

“One
hundred percent of the time they have messed it up if it doesn’t rain,”
said Phil Mickelson, a six-time US Open runner-up who lacks only his
national championship to complete a career Grand Slam. “Rain is the
governor. That’s the only governor they have. If they don’t have a
governor, they don’t know how to control themselves.”